845 Ultra Features

The 845 Ultra supports both Willamette and Northwood Pentium 4 models using the 478-pin design. This provides a well-rounded selection of CPUs, as well as a wide range of potential upgrades in the future. We had no problems with both a Pentium 4-18 GHz Willamette, as well as full performance testing using the top-of-the-line Pentium 4-2.2 GHz.

The 845 Ultra also includes three DIMM sockets with a maximum of 2GB of system memory, though the board itself is still governed by the i845D's support of only two memory banks. This means that in order to use fill all three DIMMs, only one can be double-sided. This is great news for those with a couple of single-sided sticks of DDR sitting around, but it is important to keep in mind when upgrading memory.

The 845 Ultra sports the standard 1 AGP/5 PCI/1 CNR slot design, which should satisfy the vast majority of users. The inclusion of a CNR slot on an enthusiast motherboard is suspect at best, especially when the space could be used for another PCI slot. In terms of on-board options, MSI has included a C-Media CMI8738 PCI-6 channel sound chip, along with the usual AC'97 sound and modem options. These can each be disabled easily through the system BIOS if a dedicated solution is required.

Like all Intel 845-based motherboards, the 845 Ultra also supports only 1.5V AGP cards. While 3.3V AGP cards sporting the new AGP 4X interface are few and far between, these do exist and should be avoided for use with this board. This is not as big a worry as some may think, as the physical AGP slot design will not allow older AGP 2X cards to be installed. There is a notation on the MSI website stating that instead of the usual "damage may occur" warnings, the system will not start up with a 3.3V AGP card installed. While this feature is great news, we were unable locate one of these rare, hybrid 3.3V AGP 4X cards to give it a test run.

For cooling, the 845 Ultra includes the basic CPU Fan header, along with one for a system fan, but that's it. I suppose a case could be made for less system cooling being required for the newer Pentium 4 processors, but this should really be a user decision. Then again, only including two on-board fan headers, MSI may actually be doing us a favor of sorts. With the increased power requirements of heavy-duty cooling fans, this may actually translate into a longer-lasting system that requires a PSU power cord for additional fans.

MSI has made some improvements to their famous D-LED diagnostic display by including it on the secondary USB 1.1 backplate and calling it D-Bracket. It has the same basic functionality, which is to provide indicator lights to diagnose system problems. If your PC locks up on boot, simply match the LED configuration against the included Legend and determine the problem.

How useful this feature is really depends on the actual problem you are encountering. Some error codes have multiple causes, while others can be confusing. Still it's better to have that not, and MSI has wisely let users view the diagnostic display without needing to open the case. About the only potential issue is the requirement of attaching the secondary USB header bracket, thereby taking up another case slot.

While the i845D supports only ATA-100 and USB 1.1 technologies, MSI has also produced a few different versions of the 845 Ultra. These include the 845 Ultra, the 845 Ultra-AR and 845 Ultra-ARU. Other than the very basic Ultra version, the "AR" and "ARU" reference point to added options.

The "AR" features ATA-133 RAID, while the "ARU" includes ATA-133 RAID and USB 2.0. Both the ATA-133 models sport two extra IDE connectors, while the 845 Ultra-ARU includes an extra quad USB 2.0 arrangement. Somewhere along the line MSI shelved the very promising 845 Ultra-A, which would have given straight ATA-133, four HD support but without the RAID option. You can still operate individual hard disks, but they will need to be configured as single-disk RAID units.

No matter the model, the starting configuration is for two standard USB 1.1 connectors on the ATX backplate. There is also an included bracket for the other two USB 1.1 headers, while 845 Ultra-ARU owners will also get a quad USB 2.0 bracket as well.